IN THE MIDWEST.

Rural areas lag in aid for homeless

May 30, 2001|By Items compiled by Tribune news services.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA — Indiana's most rural counties have as much as 30 percent of the state's homeless population, but their homeless shelters receive far less government aid than those in more populous areas.

About 30,000 to 60,000 Hoosiers will be without a home this year. Yet none of the 92 homeless shelters that receive state money are in Indiana's most rural counties, areas with populations of less than 25,000.

Just 20 percent of the shelters that receive state aid are in counties with fewer than 50,000 residents, which constitute nearly two-thirds of the state.

"You don't see somebody sitting in a street corner or inside a doorstep, like you would find occasionally in Indianapolis," Patrick Taylor, program manager with the Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless, told The Indianapolis Star in an interview.

"But they're still right there. The problems of homelessness are the same regardless of the size of the town," he said.